from the uh-oh dept

It was only a matter of time before we started hearing stories about how, just because mobile phones might be used by terrorists, they should be blocked. Thankfully, Russell Buckley rips apart the guy's argument, which doesn't seem to go beyond "mobile phones might be used by terrorists and that's bad." There's no description of exactly what it is about mobile phones that make them likely terrorist tools, and even the "expert" in question notes that if you blocked these bad mobile phone uses, terrorists would still attack. So, then, why exactly should we be blocking mobile phone signals if it doesn't actually do anything to make people safer?

The role that such devices played in the Madrid bombings, which left almost 200 people dead in the Spanish capital, is well documented: 10 bombs were attached to mobile handsets, with the phones' alarms used to detonate the explosives. London attacks: Were mobiles used [not this time]

...and then I read the story

Re: When Richard Reid aka The Shoe Bomber tried unsuccessfully to smuggle explosives onto a plane in his shoe, no one called for shoes to be banned. TFA

No, that would be stupid, but they *are* searching shoes: Make it Easy to be Screened. In order to keep the security screening processes as short as possible ... wear shoes that can be taken off and put back on relatively easily Ten Tips for Travel Under the New Security Rules

Re: "When Timothy McVeigh planted a truck bomb in Oklahoma City, no one called for the banning of trucks." TFA

No, that would be even more stupid, but they *are* keeping trucks further from buildings.After the Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11 attacks, worried building owners threw up rows of concrete highway barriers and mammoth planters around many office buildings... Decorative bollards, crash-proof benches and modern-day moats are blending into the American cityscape almost unnoticed. Moats

Re: But on the basis that a mobile phone could set off a bomb, we should ban the alarm functions on mobile phones? TFA

ban mobile phones

for the same reason gun bans are always shown to be the answer to gun related crime... Not.

I actually was having a mobile phone related musing today, before seeing this thread, wondering if a really hardened working cellular network in Bagdhad would allow quicker reporting of insurgent movements by the locals, before they got to strike, and whether the fact they could do so anonymously would make more people interested in saying something, where having to go to a police station there is a bit of a personal risk at the moment.